Reading boss Steve Clarke has expressed his belief that his side should have taken all three points from their Championship clash against Cardiff City.

The Royals took an early lead through Pavel Pogrebnyak, but spurned several chances to double their advantage at the Madejski Stadium before Conor McAleny struck in the 90th minute to earn Russell Slade's men a point.

Clarke has insisted that his side were fully focused on the Championship clash, despite their impending FA Cup semi-final clash against Arsenal.

"No, the cup is not on the agenda today," Clarke told Sky Sports News. "I'm just talking about the league. I thought we played well enough to get the three points. It's a game that we should have finished off long before they equalised.

"When you go into the last five minutes and it's only 1-0, you always leave yourselves vulnerable. But it's a point further away from the bottom three so we'll take it and move on to the next game.

"There was a lot of positives today. The team was good. We've said that, from the international break, we've got eight league games left and we've set ourselves a little points tally. I'm not telling you what it is but we're now a point on the way to that tally."

Reading are nine points clear of the relegation zone in the Championship table, with seven games remaining this season.